Emotional Freedom Technique for Animals and Their Humans: Creating a Harmonious Relationship Through Tapping
by Joan Ranquet
The Findhorn Press, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-64411-807-8
$16.99, 188 pp

Joan Ranquet is on a mission. Her goal: To give voice to the voiceless in order to create harmony on this planet so the Earth can begin to heal itself. In 2022 she set the lofty goal of helping 22 million animals by year's end. For 2023, she's upped it to 23 million. By building an army of animal communicators and healers through her school, Communication With All Life University, she's confident she has the means - she certainly has the will - to accomplish her goal.

Tapping on Heaven's Door
What Joan has thus far accomplished through her school and books is nothing short of miraculous. Her first book, Communication with All Life: Revelations of an Animal Communicator (Hay House, $16.99), was her coming out party, both professionally and literary. An autobiography, it introduced Ranquet to those of us who'd missed her on the popular TEDx platform and numerous television appearances. In the book, she shares anecdotes from the world of animal communication, stressing the benefits of communication for our furry loved ones.

Emotional Freedom Technique for Animals and Their Humans: Creating a Harmonious Relationship Through Tapping is Ranquet's third book. In it she covers many of the concepts explored in her second book, Energy Healing for Animals: A Hands-on Guide for Enhancing the Health, Longevity & Happiness of Your Pets (Sounds True, $17.90), with a focus on Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), or as you may have heard it called on the morning talk show circuit, "tapping." While Ranquet didn't invent EFT, she is the first to apply it to our furry-breasted beasties, and the first out of the gate with a book on her process.

EFT utilizes the same energy ancient healing techniques have been using for over a millennia. Tapping into the same energy meridians utilized by Chinese medicine (acupuncture; acupressure), EFT's main objective is the restoration of health and emotional well-being. Often our critters' bad behavior is rooted in emotional trauma. No number of times telling them they're bad is going to alleviate it. But by tapping into the origins of trauma, accompanied with a series of scripts (When my animal does . . . [ fill in the blank ]; I feel . . . [ fill in the blank ]), emotions shift; mountains move; behavior changes. These scripts - simply phrased that address the issue head-on - are spoken while tapping on consecutive meridians on the animal's body, generally confined to the head, face and upper torso. As animals come in different shapes, Ranquet provides illustrations of various species with their meridians clearly defined, as well as explanations as to each meridian's specific function.

The Body Electric
In all animals - including humans - there are three nervous systems at play: the autonomic, sympathetic and parasympathetic. The former rules the bodily functions performed unconsciously (breathing, heart function, digestion, etc.), while the second is concerned with self-preservation, controlling our fight or flight response. The third, the parasympathetic, is the juice that dominates healing and restoration. Tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system is the goal of EFT, where homeostasis (a state of chemical and physical equilibrium) can be reached, and healing begun.

If you're seeking the next level of harmony for your household, Emotional Freedom Technique is worth a first, second, third, or even fourth look . . .

EFT is so powerful, according to Ranquet, that it can be done in the physical absence of the animal being treated. Here, she suggests tapping on a surrogate (another animal, human, or even a stuffed toy). More than anything else, the success of EFT is reliant on the intention of the practitioner. If that sounds like a load of psychic hoo-doo, it is; and it isn't. The author contends EFT doesn't require any telepathic powers beyond that which we already share as sentient beings. She sees and practices it as the ancient healing technology it is, once lost to the tides of scalpel-happy western medicine, now rediscovered when the world - and its fur babies - need it most.

Elegance of Form
The beauty of Ranquet's approach to EFT is in its simplicity. The book is formatted to make the process easily understood, even by the uninitiated. She offers clear explanations on the theory, practice, and pitfalls (common errors) of EFT, alongside personal anecdotes that engage and entertain. If you're seeking the next level of harmony for your household, Emotional Freedom Technique is worth a first, second, third, or even fourth look, and may indeed, as the author intends, provide a path to world peace, one animal at a time.

Includes bibliography and appendix with tapping template and sample behavior-based scripts. Testimonial foreword provided by Ellie Laks, founder of The Gentle Barn.

Big & Little Animals
by Elizabeth Elias Kaufman
Price, Stern, Sloan, 1986
ISBN: 0-8431-1522-X
$1.25, 30 pp

The purpose of Elizabeth Elias Kaufman's Big & Little Animals is clear (as stated on the back cover):

[To] enable your child to understand and relate to the animal world. The curiosity of a young child will easily be satisfied through full-color pictures and easy-to-read type.

Attempting to strike a balance between photos and text, Big & Little Animals serves as a basic introduction to the wild kingdom. Expect nothing more and you'll not be disappointed. Cat and horse lovers, on the other hand, might be. Though the cover sports an image of a kitten and horse going nose-to-nose, there's nary a housecat, horse, or pony to be found within the pages of this slim volume.

Other titles in the Animal Information Books series include: Baby Animals; Baby Zoo Animals; Bears; Birds; Bunnies & Rabbits; Butterflies; Farm Animals; Horses & Ponies; Kittens & Cats; Lions & Tigers; Monkeys & Apes; Penguins; Pets; Puppies & Dogs; Sea Animals; Wild Animals; and Zoo Animals. I aim to collect all eighteen!

posted 09/07/23

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